SalumiLab

Equilibrium brine

Weigh the meat and the water. Get the salt and cure that bring the whole batch to your target — so the meat can sit in it as long as it needs without going too salty.

This is a calculator, not a tested recipe. It does the math; it does not know your meat, your fridge or your process. When in doubt, follow an established recipe from a trusted source.

Cure

Curing salt

Why this matters

A traditional strong brine works on a clock — leave the meat in too long and it's inedibly salty. An equilibrium brine is dosed for the combined weight of meat and water, so once everything evens out the meat lands exactly on your target and stops there. The same logic sets the nitrite: it spreads through the water and the meat alike, so the dose is calculated on the total.

Notes

  1. Limits: immersion-cured and pumped products, 200 ppm sodium nitrite and 700 ppm sodium nitrate (9 CFR 424.21(c); USDA FSIS Processing Inspectors' Calculations Handbook, 1995). Pumped or immersion-cured bacon: 120 ppm sodium nitrite, no nitrate (9 CFR 424.22(b)). Commercial bacon must also carry 550 ppm sodium ascorbate or erythorbate to limit nitrosamines; home recipes rarely include it.
  2. Default target is 156 ppm (120 ppm for bacon), below the 200 ppm immersion limit. The ppm shown assumes full equilibrium: nitrite spread evenly through meat + water. In practice some nitrite is consumed as it cures the meat and the meat takes up a little water, so the real ingoing figure is at or below what's shown. That makes this the cautious number.
  3. Contested: how long to equalize. Common rules of thumb run from about a day per half-inch of thickness to a fixed number of days per kilogram; they disagree, and bone, fat cap and injection all change it. This calculator doesn't give a time. Keep the meat fully submerged and refrigerated (below 4 °C / 40 °F) throughout.
  4. Weigh bone-in cuts as they are, but know that bone takes up no cure: the ppm in the lean will run a little higher than shown. Weigh the water, don't guess from the pot.
  5. Brine % is the salinity of the liquid on day one, before anything moves into the meat — useful if your recipe or salinometer speaks in brine strength. Nitrate (Cure #2) in a brine is legal for non-bacon products but rarely needed for anything that will be cooked.